My knees were around his hips, and his hands were firmly—firmly—on my ass, keeping me in place. I pulled back so quickly I nearly knocked him into next week only find him smirking, green eyes sparkling with amusement and a darker shade of desire.

Oh, fuck.

I’d climbed the man.

I’d literally climbed him like a tree.

And beneath all of that, I realized the intensity of the scent surrounding us wasn’t just him. It was me. I was perfuming. In a crowded room full of people, I was perfuming while practically humping an Alpha I didn’t know. And there were photographers.

Mortification dropped through me so fast it left me dizzy and cold. I pushed away, and he set me gently on my feet, making sure I was steady on my heels before releasing me. He looked like he was about to say something, but I couldn’t bear to think about what kind of remark he would make. My cheeks burned, and I turned, finding Eva through the crowd dancing with Dante. I pushed through the dancers to her, trying to ignore the smug looks and blatant stares.

I grabbed her arm. “Eva.”

She startled, eyes going wide when she saw me. “Are you okay?”

“We need to go right now. Please? I need to go.”

“Okay,” she frowned but didn’t argue. “Dante, can you take her over to the door? I need to find Jasmine.”

“Sure.” Dante was watching me warily too, searching the crowd behind me for the culprit of whoever he thought had upset me. But he didn’t need to look behind me. It was me. I upset me.

I beelined for the door, slipping out of the curtains to wait near the elevators, Dante practically sprinting to keep up. “Woah, Esme. You’re about to set the ground on fire you’re moving so fast.”

“I just needed to get out of there.”

“What on earth hap—” He froze. Out here, where there weren’t air filters purging everyone’s scent and supplying dampeners, he could smell it. My perfume hung in the air, filling the small hallway, and I turned a thousand shades of red. “Is that why you want to leave?”

“Yes.”

“But… why?”

It was too hard to explain. This didn’t happen to me. I was the one no one wanted, and I’d never—never—perfumed for anyone. The only time I perfumed at all was during the occasional heat I couldn’t avoid where I locked myself in my house until it was over. This wasn’t heat perfume, but it didn’t matter. It was too real.